This morning as I was getting my morning coffee, I watch hummingbird wars outside my kitchen window. They are nasty little fellows (gals, I guess). There were two ruby-throated hummers – maybe females since I don’t know if the the males lose their ruby throats after mating season or not, and these two didn’t have ruby throats – vying for access to the little humming bird feeder I have in one of my hanging baskets.
They fly very fast, zooming around after each other. Once in a while, one of them would sneak a sip or two before the other would zoom in and drive it away. The two of them were going through tree branches and flower stems like rollerblade fighters, and once in a while one would fly right into the other one knocking it aside. After at least 5 minutes of fighting, zooming into and out of my line of sight, only one returned. She took her fill of the sugar water and then sat up on a bare limb where it looked to me like she was playing “Queen of the Hill”. She looked around for a while, then took another quick sip and flew off. I didn’t see the loser trying to sneak in afterward. I guess I have to put out more feeders.
